I spent a large amount of yesterday going back and forth with a dozen or so people about whether or not it is ok to bid on other people's names as the trigger words for article and search ad display. Google does not allow you to opt out of Google search ads if you want to advertise on articles.

Some of the big studs in PPC often recommend aggressively bidding on competitor names, and other SEOs get mad when you do it.

The hypocritical thing is that some of the SEOs who called my bidding on their name stinky were also selling their products by bidding on trademark terms (edited out the not mentioned in their products part, but certainly many SEOs still do that...and I am not certain that it is in any way wrong). Some of the people in these threads even asked some of my friends to jump in threads against me (my friends, of course, told them to go to hell).

What is your opinion on bidding on trademark terms or other people's names as ad trigger words? Please leave lots of feedback on this.

Comments

Mike

October 8, 2004 - 7:18pm

Aaron, you were nice enough to give me a gmail invite and I appreciate it. The parody sites of you in G is frankly an unfair attack and may have crossed the line legally.
Funny when a hack like Whalen who fell into the "expert" category by simply having an early website can attack you. I hate your politics but support your expertise and marketing savy.
Good luck Aaron.

I don't see where the big deal is on this? - it happens in a load of markets all the time, many of my clients companies have been or are used as adwords targets by competitors and not all of them take the ad down if you ask them nicely.

Ultimately if you promote a product (name, brand, whatever) and you don't trademark it then you have to accept that this can happen - that's why you can get a trademark if you're concerned.

A lot of these comments in threads are pathetic. If this is how some people react to what is only a small irritation I don't want to see how they (over)react to a genuine problem. The shock horror thing also makes me question their business acumen - if they haven't seen this before have they had no clients for the last few years?

Hmmm, I'm beginning to suspect some of these SEO types thrive on controversy? Could they be raising their profile by joining the Awall-bashing? Nah - that's surely not true?

if you want to criticise me that is fine. I expect some criticism...not all feedback will be happy. At least put your real info on your comments though so I can get better feedback as to why you feel how you do.

It is not like I aim to seek and destroy or gain approval from everyone. I have not been afraid to stick my name on my statements, why are you?

I know someone bid on other product's name and got very high ROI, then disabled by Google very soon. Personally I won't bid on other pruduct's name, if my product's name was bid by others, it' fine by me, I don't think the sponser's ad can hurt the no.1 ranking much.

Jill Whalen's logic escapes me. You (Aaron) have bid on her name because it contains references to her in your book. She states that she can bid on Lycos' name because her reports reference Lycos thereby making it relevant.

What's the difference between what you're doing and what she's doing? Does she think she's entitled to do whatever she wants because she's special and only the "little people" have to live by the rules?

Whatever happened to equal grounds? If you want rules for everyone else Jill hunny, you better be prepared to live by them yourself, first.

Who died and made you [edited out by aaron. I am not trying to actively start fights here, but just trying to collect feedback. for my blog to call her that (even in the comments) makes me as bad as the person who just recently typed the bad stuff about me.]?

hmmm...I'm new to this site after having purchased the SEO book. And I'm not up on all of what's going on at the different SEO forums either. So basically I'm just trying to piece together exactly what's happened, before I come to any conclusions.

Also, I've read quite a few of the entries here, and I haven't seen much in the way of politics thus far. I'll have to read more, because frankly Aaron, I have no idea where you stand politically.

>And I'm not up on all of what's going on at the different SEO forums either. So basically I'm just trying to piece together exactly what's happened, before I come to any conclusions.

My opinion is that if you are new to SEO it may not be worth worrying about. I have gotten tons of comments from many senior people in the SEO community in the past, but most want to keep their hands off of the issue unless they are perhaps friends or enemies with one of the parties involved.

>Also, I've read quite a few of the entries here, and I haven't seen much in the way of politics thus far. I'll have to read more, because frankly Aaron, I have no idea where you stand politically.

When I have a problem with one of my neighbors, or they have a problem with me, we just talk to each other one-on-one in a friendly manner and work out whatever the problem is. Or at least we would try that first before complaining at a town meeting.

Therefore I would have expected them to email you first Aaron and ask you to stop if they didn't like it. No reason to be coy. If they do not like it, then ask for it to stop, and it all gets resolved quickly.

>>I'm beginning to suspect some of these SEO types thrive on controversy?

That thought crossed my mind too.

Papadoc

October 10, 2004 - 5:09am

Well Aaron, for what it's worth, it got me to your site to offer up some moral support. Most fail to grasp that this isn't just about SEM. It's a replication of very accepted marketing strategies that exist everywhere else.

I'm no SEM guru (someday), but I do know the marketing business very well. The days of little onesie Ma & Pa SEM companies dominating the market are numbered. Anyone that gets mad or puts on a pout over a PPC ad on their name is going to get a very rude awakening when a big marketing company comes a thunderin' down the road at their cream clients and doesn't care about playing nicey-nicey, saying mother may I, or if everyone has an equal chance on the swing. They are a'comin... I promise! Having said that, it was a magnanamous gesture to pull down your ad when asked.

On a separate note, some of my best friends are radical falling off the planet left-wing commie loving, Casto kissing, pinko, tree huggin, Peta smootching, Green Peace liberals with a CAPITAL "L" like you, you wasteful suck-wind pie in the sky dreamin, piece of Kerry/Kennedy lovin' hog-swill peacenik. We could grab a couple of six packs and have some great conversation until we got drunk enough to fight. But in the end, you'd just come out a bloody conservative mess anyway and Bush would still kick Kerry's arse. :-P

Oh, and if you ever get another Gmail invite, I promise to be your friend for ever.

>It's a replication of very accepted marketing strategies that exist everywhere else.

That is how I view it. Those who think search is special and different and held to a higher standard do not understand how open the web is and what type of implications such laws would have on other forms of marketing...and we are not going to undue how we have done things for many many years because a few people think we should.

My own future success depends on that being somewhat not true :) ... I think the openness of the web will allow it to be a mix where some small companies can do well, but many larger and more powerful ones will jump in.

>Anyone that gets mad or puts on a pout over a PPC ad on their name is going to get a very rude awakening

I have to agree with that.

>magnanimous
that is now the word of the day...great word. I have never heard it before.

Anyone who thinks you shouldn't be able to buy any keyword you want is way out of touch with reality. Sure it's leveraging their brand - so is putting a BurgerKing across the street from a McDonalds. I'm sure whomever it is that is crying did their fair share of riding the coat-tails of somebody that came before them, one way or another.

Of course, you're probably fanning these flames because controvery is always good for sales ;-)

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